The cause of Saturday's Russian jetliner crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula
still is unknown, but it is most likely due to a technical failure and
there is no evidence of any terrorist action, Egyptian Airports Co.
chief Adel Al-Mahjoob said on Saturday. The Airbus A321 had a
routine check before flight, showing everything was OK to proceed,
Al-Mahjoob said.

Weather apparently no factor

Among the significant, if very preliminary, pieces of information to emerge Saturday were these:

• The plane was flying at 31,000 feet when it disappeared from radar screens, the Egyptian civil aviation ministry said.

•
Russia 24, a state-owned news channel, and other Russian media outlets
are saying the pilot reported technical problems and requested a landing
at the nearest airport before the plane went missing. Officials have
not corroborated those reports.

•
Russia 24 also quotes the FlightRadar 24 website as saying the plane was
descending at a rate of 1,800 meters per minute, or 67 mph, before
radar contact was lost.

• Weather in the area was clear.

•
The plane, Kogalymavia Flight 9268, was an Airbus 321, Russian state
media reported. The airline is commonly known as Metrojet.

The
site of the crash is reported to be mountainous. Still, Egyptian rescue
crews made their way there, and officials said 15 bodies were being
flown to Cairo, the Egyptian capital.

Putin orders investigation

And
the Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail, met with ministers and security
officials as the cause of the remained a mystery. The most dangerous
parts of any flight are the takeoff and landing; it is unusual for a
plane to fall from the sky at cruising altitude.

Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to open
an investigation into the crash, the Kremlin said. And the president
declared an official day of mourning Sunday for the victims.

The
Russian emergency ministry said it was sending five planes to the area
to help with possible rescues and the investigation. And Russia opened a
hotline for relatives, many of whom gathered at the airport in St.
Petersburg, where they had expected their loved ones to arrive.

The
crash site is in the northern part of Sinai, near a town called Housna
-- 300 kilometers (185 miles) from the Red Sea resort of Sharm
el-Sheikh, the Egyptian Prime Minister's office says Egyptian air force
planes have spotted the crash site from the air, officials say.